PPC – Paid Search Marketing

PPC, (Pay Per Click) is a popular form of Paid Search Advertising which is an integral part of the digital marketing strategy of many organisation.

Paid Search Marketing normally takes the form of PPC, or Pay Per Click ads placed using systems like Google’s AdWords, Bings AdCenter or those available on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

However, PPC isn’t the only game in town and, in fact, many search marketing campaigns are not run on a pay per click basis at all. Instead they use a costing model known as PPM, (Pay Per Thousand impressions), based on the number of impressions the ad receives. This method is especially valuable when the main objective of the campaign is to gain visibility for a brand or product, rather than to generate clicks to a website.

Although Google’s AdWords platform did rule the roost for a long time, and, arguably, still does, there is serious competition now coming from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, all of whom offer paid ad facilities of one sort or another on their hugely popular websites – see our section on social media marketing, (SMM), for a more in-depth exploration of these options.